Every time I see the steam rising off of the open water one of Abbas songs starts to play in my head with queen replaced with steam. You know the song I am referring to. Good luck getting that out of your head now. You are welcome 🙂
This a.m. I remembered my spotlight and managed a short snippet of the steam. It was -11 and the camera froze up in just under an hour.
Nikon D700 | ISO 800 | 150mm | f/7.1 | 1/160 secondNikon D700 | ISO 800 | 150mm | f/7.1 | 1/40 second
It was a pretty spectacular sunset this a.m. The color was beautiful.
Pre-surnise
Just before sunriseSunrise
Here is a panorama I shot; you can see the long line of steam
No drone photos/video this a.m. Too cloud to stand around for very long.
I was a bit late getting home from work and was not so quick to change and load up my photo gear. The sunset forecast for this evening was not great; however the weather was so nice (40+ degrees on the 18th of December). I decided to venture out anyway.
I didn’t have enough time to get where I wanted to. Alternatively I found a n area on top of a bluff along a road with an area of wide-open space. If I wasn’t going to see an resemblance of a sunset, it could be viewed from here.
When the conditions are not necessarily what you are hoping for in a typical sunset, there are options. Abundant clouds in motion are perfect for time-lapse. I only wish I had gotten there sooner and had more time. Just under and hour of shooting yielded 5 whole seconds of video.
There was a pretty spectacular presentation of Mother Nature yesterday evening. Smaller, isolated showers were forecasted to roll through my area; there is no better place to take this all in than Memorial Park on top of Sorin’s Bluff overlooking the town of Red Wing.
iPhone 6S shot
Here is a brief time lapse sequence from one of the small storms bypassing Red Wing.
Here are some still shots of the weather rolling by out on the horizon.
And then this soaker-cell approached from over-top Barn Bluff; it was time to pack up and leave.
It was an unseasonably mild, snow-less and cloudy afternoon in Red Wing atop Sorin’s Bluff in Memorial Park at the lookout. I would not have typically thought about loading up the photo gear to venture out in these less-than-optimal conditions; however, everything was at the ready and loaded from this morning when sunrise wasn’t visible at all – not even a glimmer. I really wasn’t anticipating seeing any moving clouds in the frames and was thinking of focusing more on moving traffic on the city streets. I was pleasantly surprised at what I was able to glean from the sky. Lightroom recently added a very handy feature nestled in between Clarity and Saturation – Dehaze.
Original
Graduated Filter with Dehaze. FYI – a little goes a long way.
Final edited first frame
This definitely provided some definition in the clouds making the scene more interesting. Here is the completed time-lapse video combining all three points of view that I captured. I may have to give this vantage point a whirl after dark. The light trails from the head/tail lights produce a wonderful light show.
December 5th, 2015 – 37 degrees @ 7:00 a.m. (sunrise @ 7:30 a.m.). It would go on to reach 49 degrees as they day progressed; sure beats 20 below. I setup in a familiar place; a favorite site any time of the year for a sunrise. I employed a 3-camera setup this morning as illustrated in the first image below. I moved camera 3 to three more different vantage points. I used footage from only two of four positions that camera 3 occupied. It is challenging enough to get the exposure correct on one camera as it gets lighter out; 3 different cameras had me running a bit. The more I dabble with time-lapse the deeper its hooks get into me. It is challenging.
From L to R – Camera 3, 2 & 1
Camera 3 moved for wave view
Here are a few single-frame shots from the time-lapse sequences.
Camera #1 View
Camera #2 View
Camera #2 View
Camera #3 View
Camera #3 moved from tree to waves – quick snap in-between
Camera #3 View
You can view more of my time-lapse projects via my blog or my youtube channel.
The end product of this time-lapse shoot is below. I hope you enjoy viewing it as much as I did creating it.
This is the 2nd part of the time-lapse I shot on Friday, November 13th, 2015. This was shot in the same location as Sun Flares; utilizing a different angle of view.
Sun Flares was shot in the direction of the blue arrow and this sequence in the direction of the red arrow. The location is along a stretch of Rustic Road 51 close to from Maiden Rock, WI (off of Hwy 35 and AA). My original intent was to tie the two different angles of view together with a third, but the third sequence did not turn out. The result was two independent parts instead of a three-view start to finish video. I’ll try again.
I didn’t anticipate any traffic, but I am glad I positioned the camera just off the road. Six cars came through while I was shooting. Here is the other view from the 2 1/2 hours of shooting.
I’ve admired time-lapse photography for some time now; mostly through viewing websites on the Internet and what you see on TV from time to time. I can attest that once you get the bug to give it go, you can easily get hook – for a time anyway. As mentioned in a previous post, time-lapse photography is time-intensive. Last week I made some time for more practice.
The second shoot of the week was in another favorite location – Pine Creek. A lovely little spring creek not far from Maiden Rock, WI (off of Hwy 35 and AA; then Rustic Road 51).
I setup right in the stream just off of the road. I did not figure I would encounter any traffic in the early morning hours along this minimum maintenance road, but I was wrong. You’ll notice a few instances of ripples in the video as a result.
The sun had already risen and was making its way along the ridge of the bluff out in front of me. The sun flares that resulted as the sun rose higher in the air were very nice surprise. I had only anticipated cloud movement in the sky as well as reflected in the stream. I also had hoped for some moving shadows; those were more prevalent in the other angle I shot (next post). I shot for 2 1/2 hours in his location. I am pretty happy with the result.
It’s been a while since I have dabbled with time-lapse photography. I had some time the other day and decided to give it another whirl. It was a picture perfect morning for a sunrise. The clouds were a bit thick, but that ended up to be a great feature. The sun rose through the clouds during the whole shoot. The sun rays danced on endlessly through the early morning.
Shooting time-lapse is a significant investment of time – or at least I think so. I brought along a book to pass the time. The three sequence were shot between 6:58 a.m. – 9:04 a.m. on 2015-11-11 in Bay City, WI.
I planned on capturing slightly different views and mashing them up together afterword. As it were, the intervalometer on camera 2 was only set for 90 frames (instead of 999). Live and learn; check every single setting twice. Set white balance. Compose and focus; then switch to manual focus so lens doesn’t attempt to focus for each frame. Manual mode for exposure. Check those setting twice to be sure. It is rather disappointing when you spend a few hours capturing time-lapse only to hundreds of unusable frames. I started shoot these sequences at ISO 200, 18mm; I did however make some adjustments along the way. I started at F/11 @ 1/40 sec and end up at F/14 @ 1/640 sec. The changes where gradual with several frames between changes.
I took this learning opportunity to move and setup with a dramatically different angle of view. There was a nice-sized bit of drift wood on he beach that created an interesting foreground. I’ve only used my new Manffroto PIXI Table Top Tripod a few times; this is exactly what I envisioned using it for.
I ended up with two shorter segments and one longer one – longer being completely relative here as the final product is only 57 seconds long. The time-lapse sequences were produced in VideoVelocity 3 by Candy Labs. The sequences were mashed up together in Windows Movie Maker.
The final product is below with music added by Kai Engle – With Redemption.
In the US, Canada, and Central and South America, a rare Total Lunar Eclipse of a Supermoon took place the evening of September 27, 2015. This event will not happen for another 33 years. Fortunately it was visible near the Minnesota/Wisconsin boarder in a small Mississippi River town of Bay City, WI where my wife and I along with our friend Linnae photographed it. Here are a few shots.
Here is a crude time lapse leading up to the full eclipse.
32 degrees on a January morning is always welcomed to me. It is also an invitation to get out and shoot a sunrise. Winter vs. Summer sunrises are a toss-up for me. One plus to Winter sunrises is they happen later. I am not opposed to getting up early, but 6 a.m. is always seems easier than 4 a.m.
Cyndie and I initially planned on shooting at a favorite spot in Lake City, MN – a quick 20 minute drive from where we live in Red Wing, MN. We arrived at the point (off of Chestnut St) and just down from Ohuta Park. We made good time and had plenty of time to spare. Giving ourselves plenty of time was a good plan as there were minimal ice heaves present off the point. There certainly were not enough to fill in the foreground of a photo.
Like any plan, it is good to have a backup. We back-tracked to the boat landing in Old Frontenac on Lake St. I had stopped there on MLK day while driving around Lake Pepin after shooting the sunrise. I noticed some ice fishing houses on the lake; I thought they where closer to the landing. I was envisioning them as a nice foreground for the sunrise shoot. Upon arrival the parking lot was already full and folks where lining up on the ice to park. The ice fishing houses where out further from shore; not in an ideal position unfortunately.
MLK Day 2015 Sunrise
If you were thoughtful enough to have a back up plan, chances are you have yet another idea if the first and second option doesn’t pan out. We still had plenty of time and decided to head back to Red Wing and then across the river into Wisconsin and to a favorite sunrise spot in Bay City. This place works well any time of the year; with its close proximity to Red Wing, it is easy to reach if in a hurry. The springs along the shore leave open water throughout the winter. The open water affords local Mallards a quiet resting place as well as enable beautiful cloud reflections.
I shot the sunrise in three different sequences. I have not shot any time lapse in a while, but felt inclined to do so because he the clouds were pretty epic this morning with nice gradual movement. I wish I would have set up different cameras in the three locations and captured longer amount of time.
First sunrise sequence time lapse
Here is a single frame I selected from the sequence of shots to post process.
Second sunrise sequence time lapse
Here is a single frame I selected from the sequence of shots to post process.
Third sunrise sequence time lapse
Here is a single frame I selected from the sequence of shots to post process.
Here are some other shots from the morning.
And finally, some shots from the iPhone. You need another camera to keep yourself occupied when shooting time lapse – you have some time on your hands.
